IT’S the cry often made by the law-and-order brigade: “Bring back the stocks.”

Now it’s happening in East Lancashire – but only for historical purposes.

The Rotary club of Church and Oswaldtwistle plans to bring back the stocks, once an integral part of the justice system.

They were used to shame petty offenders when there were few prisons.

The guilty party would would have their hands and legs locked in wooden boards while people showered them with rotten fruit - and worse.

Rotarians Albert Wilkinson and Terry Hogan have researched the history of the stocks in Oswaldtwistle and have established that in the first place they were erected in a small triangle of vacant land behind the famous ‘Big Lamp’.

Their research found that in 1902 Oswaldtwistle Council gave permission for the Rev FG Harris of Immanuel Church, New Lane, Oswaldtwistle, to transfer the stocks to a site in the church grounds.

Years later they were moved to Rhyddings Park, which opened in 1909, and were held at two locations there until they were moved back to their previous site in front of the library.

The stocks were restored to their former glory but since then they have fallen into disrepair.

Now Rotarian Ron Pickup has volunteered to refurbish the stocks, in particular the timbers, and the club hopes the project will be completed by autumn.

Michael Jackson, 79, said: “At the moment the upright stones where the stocks are going to go are in front of the library but they are hidden by bushes.

“We have had a look at the moveable boards, the timbers, which are in the cellar at the library but they are in a bad condition. Ron will refurbish them or do a new set and then we can slot them into the stocks supports so they are back to how they used to be.

“It’s just a bit of history coming back. ”

The stocks will be unveiled at a ceremony in the autumn and Michael fears he may be the fall guy.

He said: “It will create a bit of interest, especially when we put one of the Rotarians in them. It’ll probably be me having thrown tomatoes at him as I am a Blackburn man in the Church and Oswaldtwistle Rotary Club.

“I am a foreigner, an outsider.”